Why Didn't Ahmadinejad Say So In The First Place?

Today in Opinion Journal--Best of the Web, James Taranto addresses Ahmadinejad's latest comments, where he finally acknowledges the Holocaust. If the West waits a little longer, maybe we can even get him to admit that he wants to blow up Israel.

Haaretz reports:

Ahmadinejad, who once said that the attempt to eradicate Jews in the Holocaust was "myth," has now charged that European countries sought to complete the genocide by establishing Israel, a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries.

..."Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of [the Europeans'] aims in creating a regime of occupiers of [Jerusalem]?" the official Islamic Republic News agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"Isn't that an important question?"

In "Yeah, That's the Ticket . . ." now that Ahmadinejad seems to have learned his history, Taranto gives him a lesson in demographics and the difference between the sizes of Jewish communities in Europe and in the Arab countries:

Talk about chutzpah. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Europe has 2.3 million Jews, and 11 of the 20 countries with the biggest Jewish populations are in Europe: Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Germany, Belarus, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Moldova.

By contrast, among predominately Muslim countries, the one with the biggest Jewish population is Iran itself, which places 25th with an estimated 20,405 Jews. This is less than one-fifth of Germany's Jewish population, and other estimates (such as this one) have the number much smaller....Iraq's Jewish population had declined to around 100 by 2003 from 150,000 in 1948.

...On the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, 80,000 Jews lived in Iran. In the wake of the upheaval, tens of thousands of Jews, especially the wealthy, left the country, leaving behind vast amounts of property.

According to Taranto, the correct interpretation of events would be:

So it would be more accurate to say that Arab countries since 1948, joined by Iran since 1979, have been following the lead of the Germans of the Nazi era and depopulating themselves of Jews.

A separate issue, perhaps completing Ahmadinejad's history course, is the Muslim role in the Holocaust, discussed earlier at Yes, Mahmoud, There Was A Holocaust.

The year is young--and Ahmadinejad still has a lot to learn.

Technorati Tag: Ahmadinejad and Holocaust.